Approaching Dusk
by MiniMcGiggles
Summary: Gray heard the warning from Invel. He remembers moments of losing his mind when fighting Natsu. He just hoped nothing would come of it. Even with the help of his friends, Gray doesn't know if he will be able to stop his Demon Magic from eating at his soul completely.


**Why hello! Long-time no see! I really am just flabbergasted with being back. I went back to check on my old stories for shits and giggles, and then started looking on the website to post, and then started writing, and theeeeen - well now I'm here. Wow, this brought back a lot of nostalgia. I am just - wow! Its been almost three to four years! In that time, I've about graduated from college (I've got one semester left). I've moved and moved - oh and moved. Life has gotten in the way countless times. I really have no excuse for being gone so long - but with the start of my last semester coming up in like 7 days, I really don't know if I'll be back again for a while. I will try! I forgot how much fun it is to write - for fun! **

**Anyway, read if you are interested! Review if you wanna! And oh lord, have a great old day!**

**Word Count: **1469

**Summary:** Gray heard the warning from Invel. He remembers moments of losing his mind when fighting Natsu. He just hoped nothing would come of it. Even with the help of his friends, Gray doesn't know if he will be able to stop his Demon Magic from eating at his soul completely.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything - not even my student debt...right, US Government?

**Warning: **mentions of blood

* * *

Jobs seemed to be simple these days. After the defeat of life's biggest shit storms, the battle with Zeref, life cleared. Almost like the days following a natural disaster. The world around him cleansed and life settled. Though he knew something was slipping. Many people said, "calm before the storm" and Gray knew even if the hand of the Maker came down and fucked shit up, there still was going to be a kick afterward. So, he, now and days, stepped over saying that jobs were too easy, too simple, too laidback. Life was not going to be simple for too long. Time was ticking, and the alarm was about to go off.

So, after the big storm and using Iced Shell in an attempt to cover his hatred for his actions (and intentionally himself). He promised to acknowledge things now. After all, most of the storm felt calculated in a way to lift the tension off of his shoulders. Tension, yes. Hatred for himself, his action, his entire existence, no.

To clarify, he understood what he was doing. Every action was analyzed, and, in the end, this was the best outcome – for everyone. His mind, on the other hand, was going to come out worse for wear. Each time he turned the nob for Devil Slaying Magic, there was a slight electric shock near the front of his head. Sometimes, life would blank, and minutes would turn blank, with an enemy broken and bleeding on the floor. Other times, his rage took over, his punches would be too hard, their bones were broken too far, and he would be forced to pull back.

Others knew about these "ticks", as Erza would say. After his battle with Invel, and the mana jabbering about what Devil Slayer Magic, Gray made note of the occurrence but focused on it no more. It wasn't until after he fought tooth and nail against Natsu, that Gray finally moved the mention of his magic to the forefront. The other Ice Mage seemed to understand something Gray did not, and that bothered him more than anything. He tried finding notes on Invel's mention but came up empty-handed. There had to be something there, anything, because if that bastard knew something, then that meant there had to be something. He told his team after he ran into yet another dead end, and they seemed stunned. More than that, they were offended. Questioning and berating him as to why Gray never said anything earlier. And frankly, he was just as affronted. Their fight took two nights for both sides to come to an understanding. On Gray's side, he wanted to wait – he knew that in the future they were going to know – but for those moments, he needed to understand everything before censuring his closest companions about the matter. On the other side, not only were they still hurt from not knowing sooner, but they were concerned for his mental state. In the end, they concluded that there was no other solution than proceeding forward with caution. Hence, "with caution" meant very little to no use of his Devil Slayer Magic.

He didn't want another moment of blood lust, so he agreed half-heartedly.

It was a smart decision from the beginning. Well, scratch that, the moment of transforming was a terrible decision, but everything before that – that was a smart decision.

It was late afternoon, the sun was setting, and stars were beginning to shine – making the ocean dark and unsympathetic. He knew this because the moment he was thrown into the raging sea, he knew he was fucked if he didn't act. So, he slipped into his big boy pants and shot to the surface. His opponent, gruff as he was, pushed another wave over Gray's head, drowning him once more. This bastard is giving Juvia a run her for her money, Gray thought reluctantly as he forced ice from his black fingers and cut a path back to the shore. His path cracked slightly, but before the bolder of a man could counteract Gray's bridge, his stomach caved in as ice sent him across the soaked sand.

Gray made it back to shore, coughing seawater out of his lungs and watched the dark markings scale further past his chest. A bolt of electricity made Gray flinch slightly and his dark fingers twitched with excitement.

"There we are," the man pushed his long-soaked hair out of his face. "Now we're cookin'."

Gray pushed out a laugh, "Anyone ever tells you that you look like a surfer who ate a whale?"

"I normally get the headline: Sexy Man Lives with too Many Muscles."

"They look like they could choke you if you flex too hard," Gray shot his right hand back, balling his fist.

The man stood up, shrugging slightly while lifting both hands – rising the seawater behind Gray. "Sometimes I can't breathe at night 'cause my arm crushes my windpipe."

"Damn," mutters under his breath. In a flash, Gray shifts his feet in the sand, freezing everything around him – including the wall of water being him. He pushes his fist from behind him and throws it forward. In that instance, the wall of water crashes, shards are formed and shoot past his form. The spikes almost nail the man directly in the chest, but before the ice can meet its target, he melts and soaks into the saturated sand. Gray drops his shoulders slightly, rolling his eyes, but not losing sight of moving sand. "What is with water mages and turning into the water?" He moves his left foot forward; purple ice explodes forward and he hears a scream. Yet, before he attacks again, the man springs behind him wraps both arms around his chest and neck.

Wind twists past his ear, "You can't freeze a whole ocean."

Gray and the man fell backward, water entangling their limbs. Gray takes one last gulp of air before he is forced back into the ocean and pushed down. He acknowledges that the man's arms are gone, but he can feel his ankles being dragged down. Gray could only make out the surface as it slipped further and further away. His chest burned slightly, but he could handle this, he knew he could. Pushing past the lack of air, Gray looked down and froze the water below him. Yet, the liquid did not react the way it would on land, and the ice simply moved past him. Gray growled to himself. He reached out slightly, taking hold of his ankles and squeezed. Ice shot downward. The man's invisible hands, now icy purple, cracked off of Gray's ankles and shook rapidly in the water. Gray's lungs started burning deeper now, but before he allowed himself to head for the surface, his hands came together – and the world hickuped.

He was momentarily deep in the water and next he was standing on a small island of ice. His dark hand was suddenly around the man's throat. The man was lifted off the ground, a large gash in between his shoulder and neck. Gray's fingers were dug deeply into his opponents' neck, his fingernails drawing blood.

"Look man…I-I promise," the surfer promised between broken gasps, "…I surrender." His hands shook vigorously as he struggled to pull away from Gray's grasp.

Normally at this point, Gray would have dropped the man and cuffed him. Apologizing as he walked back to his guildmates. But Gray couldn't move. His actions were as frozen as his ice. The man kept struggling, blood dripping faster from his wound. "P-please…"

It was at this moment that Gray felt his lips crack as a smile reached across his face. The front of his head cracked slightly with exhilaration. A shiver of excitement rushed down his spine and he noted that those dark markings that normally encased his right side, were now dousing his left shoulder. Gray looked back up to his opponent. Once pleading, now frightened, the man kicked out at Gray's chest. Gray felt a chuckle rise from his chest. "Come on," he tisked, "that won't do anything to me." In a moment of pure pleasure, Gray twitched and cracked the ice below him with the man's form cave. Blood sprang from the opponent's mouth, his eyes shooting open and tears sprang to the surface.

His hands shook as he began to cry, "Please, I – I'm surrendering…please, please don't kill me."

Gray unlatched his hand from the man's throat and his smile dropped slightly. Gray formed a shard of ice and pressed it to the man's throat. "No," Gray watched as the man shuddered and took in trembling breaths. His hand latched onto his opponents' shoulder and gripped hard.

Gray forced the shard of ice into the man's throat. "I don't waste my time on trash like you."

* * *

**So I remember one note of me wanting to do something like this somewhere in my life. You can see some notes from my old fics. But this really came to mind when I was reading _Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest_ and Gray had to fight with only his Devil Magic. That brought a thought to my mind. Then I reread the fight with Invel and the guy mentions something about losing your soul/mind to the magic if you use it too much. THEN, I started reading Mnemosyne's Elegy's story "Demon of Redemption" and "Reconstruction" (omg please go read that shit - all I can say is: how do I learn to write as beautiful as you Elegy?). And then the story was born. **

**I know most of you are going to ask if I can continue my other stories. As of right now, I don't even know if I want this story to be continued (kind of) or just a simple one-shot. So right now, I probably won't be going back to most/any of my stories. I want to - don't get me wrong. I just don't want to promise something that I won't be able to uphold. I hope you understand.**

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